Labour MP first to be sued for 'laziness'

A Labour MP has become the first to be sued for negligence by a constituent.

By Aislinn Simpson

11:28AM GMT 04 Feb 2009

Health Minister Ann Keen has been taken to court over allegations that she failed to exercise her duty to help a war veteran clear his name after a miscarriage of justice 47 years ago.

John Taylor, 84, claims he wrote more than 100 letters to his MP asking her to help him get compensation for his wrongful conviction of stealing £17 in 1962 - a conviction which saw him serve three years in prison. The conviction came after three men brought a stolen safe to the flat where he was sleeping, but it was quashed in 1998.

Mr Taylor, who was badly wounded while fighting in Holland during the Second World War, alleges his MP failed to act beyond writing to the Justice Secretary Baroness Scotland about his case four years ago.

She denies the allegation, insisting she "repeatedly made representations" on Mr Taylor's behalf and sent acknowledgements to his letters.

Legal experts say the case, which is being heard at Brentford County Court, is the first of an MP facing action for breaching their "duty of care" to a constituent.

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While MPs have no statutory obligation to voters, the Commons code of conduct says they have a "general duty to act in the interests of the nation as a whole and a special duty to their constituents".

Mrs Keen, the Brentford and Isleworth MP, made the headlines last year after she and her MP husband Alan used £175,000 of public money to buy a flat near Parliament when they already had a home just nine miles away. The revelation earned them the sobriquet "Mr And Mrs Expenses".

She holds the marginal her marginal seat of Brentford and Isleworth with 4,411 votes.

Mr Taylor, of Hounslow, west London, told the Daily Mail: "I haven't asked for the Earth. I just want some assistance from my elected representative."

A source close to the MP was quoted as saying: "Ann Keen has done all she could for Mr Taylor. She tried to help at the start and has been sending acknowledgments.

"As recently as June last year, she told Mr Taylor that his solicitors should contact her if there was any useful action she could take. Now she has drawn a line under it and said she can do no more."